After 36 years at Southern California Edison, Dirk McConnell has pretty much seen it all, but the Thanksgiving storm that buried the Lake Arrowhead area in three feet of snow was one for the books.

“This is definitely one of the biggest snow events I’ve worked on,” said McConnell, who was reassigned from his day job as SCE Orange County regional manager to oversee repairs in the mountains in and around Arrowhead. The storm also impacted local roads and communities from Lake Gregory to Crestline.

The snow, which matched the record 36-inch snowfall in March of 1991, toppled trees and downed power lines across the mountain communities. It was the first major snow event in the San Bernardino Mountains since a blizzard hit Forest Falls in January 2016.

After the Thanksgiving Day storm, 40 SCE crews, consisting of 150 workers, were dispatched to restore power but the conditions were treacherous.

When roads finally opened to traffic, snow chains were needed just to get up the mountain and to navigate icy sideroads. Black ice made driving even plowed roads dangerous. Snow-laden trees were tangled in power lines and some of the circuits on remote mountainsides were unreachable by truck.

McConnell said there was so much snow it was difficult to even see the damage to SCE equipment. And even as the crews made repairs, new problems cropped up as more trees came down.

“Our crews had to overcome many challenges to perform to necessary repairs, in very tough conditions,” McConnell said. “I could not be prouder of the attitude and work ethic our crews, troublemen and support groups demonstrated during this event.”

Crews replaced more than 135 transformers, 110 poles and 315 spans of wire in all the areas affected by the storm.